Blog

CRA: June 2012

As we wrap up the 2nd month of our 10th season shooting CRA, the answer is still the same that I gave to people back when we first started out – Because we get the best seats in the house.

For any motorsports fan, you know that races are generally easier to follow from the comfort of your couch, pausing the TiVo to refresh your brew whenever is convenient. But real fans know that the action is best experienced live and as close to the track as possible. Under the premise of providing photos of the racers, the CRA provides us access to areas of that track that most people don’t get to experience but I’ll confess – we really just like being within arms length of bikes at full throttle

To see what I’m talking about, check out this video we posted to Facebook earlier this week. It’s from the wall on rider’s right between T13 and T1, where in this case you’ve got heavyweight bikes simply hauling the mail. Based on the feedback we got from this, you can expect more of these in the future so you can share the experience from our view!

The second place motivator to us standing out in the elements isn’t the sun tan – it’s the racing itself. We are fortunate enough to know most of you, and that means we REALLY get into the actual battles we watch. While we won’t confess to any particular favorites on the grids (MPDN bikes aside, of course!), last-minute passes or sprint-length swapping of positions will always elicit a response of cheering, fist-pumping, and long distance hi-fives from the both of us when we get to see it happen up close and personal.

Believe it or not, we get just as excited as you do, and this past June weekend gave us plenty of opportunity to get the heart rate up. We watched battle after battle, passes answered with passes, an occasional elbow (*Ahem* Zajic), and plenty of well-earned victory wheelies.

Double-sprint weekends are also the most work for us. I think the total shutter count was somewhere around 8000, and we’ve got over 4,300 selected images of 97 different racers posted in the galleries for you. Kaleb DeKeyrel won the overall total with 106 pictures, followed by Brandon Soine with 105.

Chelsea and I also hit our stride by covering different areas of the track at the same time. You’ll notice your galleries are sorted by actual time now, so don’t be surprised if you see two different corners during the same race. In general, Chelsea was focusing more on the individual shots and I was going after the group shots with emphasis on the battles/duels/passing.

Off track, we continued to grow the Miscellany gallery. Hands down the most popular section of the site. We had a great opportunity this weekend to get a planned visit from the North Memorial Air Care helicopter as they trained on proper patient loading, which gave us the chance to get a lot more of those “non-bike” pictures that you all love so much.

Those of you who are not subscribed to our Facebook page missed out on the pre-order deal, so bummer for you. You’ve still got a few chances left this year to save some bucks and be first in line to get your photos from the weekend, so go visit the page already!